Muslims Are Whining About "24"

This should really come as no shock, but Muslims are concerned about how they are being portrayed on the Fox series "24." For example:

"I think that TV has quite an effect on how people think," said Nadeem Mazen, past president of the MIT Muslim Association. "So much of what we hear on Muslims is hearsay - an expert opinion by people with a personal agenda and not necessarily motivated by truth. And then a show like this comes along that perpetuates the 'them' factor." [...]

Of course, it's a show. But TV not only reflects the zeitgeist - it also influences it, some say, meaning the writers of "24" have to be careful, said Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"I saw '24' (on Monday) and we do have concerns with the show," Ahmed said. "We are monitoring it and will be contacting our contacts at Fox to discuss those concerns." [...]

Syed M. Ali Khan of the Muslim Community Support & Services in Braintree just hopes audiences consider the source, so to speak.

"TV shows are out to make money and get ratings," he said. "They aren't there to create awareness. I hope people realize that it's just a money-making machine and (are) not stupid enough to buy into the propaganda."

Instead of being concerned about how Muslims are being portrayed on a television series, maybe these same advocates should be concerned about the perception that people will have of Muslims based upon the actual words and actions of imams and other adherents to Islam.

Abu Usamah at-Thahabi, who preached at the Islamic Center of Peoria in 2001, is the subject of a British news documentary that revealed Monday how he regularly exhorts worshippers at the Green Lane Masjid, or mosque, in Birmingham to hate Westerners, whom he calls "pathological liars" and "kuffar," a derogatory term for non-Muslims.

Abu Usamah also calls for the public crucifixion of all "kuffar" and says they should be "left there to bleed to death for three days."
American-Born Imam Spews Message of Hate in England


At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is: "I come to slaughter all of you."

"We are the Muslims," said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. "We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."
Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads


Samaira Nazir rejected Pakistani suitors chosen by her family and planned to elope with her Afghan boyfriend. The penalty for her defiance: death from 18 stab wounds inflicted by her brother and cousin at the family home in Southall, England.

More than a dozen women are killed for violating community standards each year in the U.K., according to police. While Nazir's killers were jailed for life, U.K. police ignore hundreds of "honor crimes" to avoid inflaming relations with Muslim enclaves as they work to head off homegrown terror plots, say lawmakers and women's rights advocates.
U.K. 'Honor Crimes,' Cloaked in Silence, Stall Police


Talal Chahine, the 51-year-old owner of the La Shish restaurant chain, left the country in September 2005 after federal agents used a search warrant to raid his company headquarters in Dearborn.

A May 2006 indictment charged him and his wife, Elfat El Aouar, the chain's former financial manager, with four counts each of income tax evasion, alleging they concealed more than $16 million in cash during the 2000-2003 tax years.

Prosecutors said Chahine had ties to the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, which the U.S. government classifies as a terrorist organization.
Restaurants struggle as owner linked to terrorists, tax evasion


Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, pleaded guilty in federal court as he stood before US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. The original indictment charged Bakri and other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods, producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, and laundering money.

Most troubling was the fact that part of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization (DFTO), according to the indictment.

Bakri faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Two other defendants, Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., have already entered guilty pleas to basically the same indictment.
Michigan's Hezbollah Connection Uncovered

Nadeem Mazen, Rabiah Ahmed, and Syed M. Ali Khan all need to worry more about the image created for Muslims by the words and actions of other Muslims. Once they clean up their own house (or mosque), then they can more validly claim "negative portrayal" in regards to Muslim characters on a television show.

USMC 9971 OUT